This invention relates to a user management system for a musical accompaniment playing apparatus called "KARAOKE" equipment.
As a method for charging or management of a user in a musical accompaniment playing system, there are known methods using a coin box, a prepayed card, and an IC card, etc.. A coin and a prepayed card are used only for collection of money, and an IC card is used for reservation of music pieces, collection of money, and management of balance.
The method of using a coin box is most popular. However, it has problems that as coins must be collected when the box is filled with coins, it takes much time and labor in collection of coins, and that a dealer must manage money. In the case of a prepayed card, it is only available for money collection and a prepayed card issuance machine is required. Further, there is a possibility of a data alteration. In the case of the IC card, not only charge management can be carried out, but also data relating to users can be stored. However, at the present, there were the problems that the card itself is expensive and that there is high possibility of data alteration.
In addition to the above mentioned methods, method of using a floppy disk or a RAM card are conceivable. The former method is inexpensive, however, the data can be easily deteriorated by an external magnetic interference. On the other hand, the latter method has a problem that the RAM card is expensive similarly to the IC card.